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A Look At The Giants Outfielders

We're 2.5 months into the season. The All-Star break is about a month away. The Giants have survived an insane amount of injuries (welcome to the DL Freddy, you get to take Pablo's vacated DL spot) and somehow have managed to cling on to first place. They've done it without their star catcher and for the most part without their best hitter (Kung Fu Panda). Panda's back and looking like he missed zero time (and managed not to gain back any weight). That's good news. The bad news is the Giants have a negative run differential and very few teams make the playoffs with a negative run differential. It can be done (see: Giants 1997, Padres 2005) but it's rare. And it's next to impossible to go deep in October and actually win a ring with a stat like that accompanying your team.

The Giants have a black hole at catcher right now. Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart are not MLB starting caliber catchers. Period. However, it's hard to find an offensive minded catcher that is good enough defensively to handle this type of pitching staff. Catchers like Posey don't grow on trees so finding a true replacement for him isn't going to happen. But the Giants can improve elsewhere.

Where?

The outfield. Bet you were thinking I was going to say shortstop, huh? No, Crawford should get every chance to nail down that spot. His offense may come and go but his defense is spectacular and these Giants pitchers need someone that can catch the ball in the infield. Besides, except for Jose Reyes, there really aren't any talented offensive shortstops either.

Which leaves our outfield. Take a look at our rotating 5 outfielders:

Burrell

against RHP: .255 AVG, .386 OBP, .875 OPS
against LHP: .152 AVG, .235 OBP, .431 OPS

Rowand

against RHP: .190 AVG, .252 OBP, .533 OPS
against LHP: .380 AVG, .407 OBP, .987 OPS (!!)

Schierholtz

against RHP: .279 AVG, .328 OBP, .787 OPS
against LHP: .150 AVG, .143 OBP, .293 OPS

Torres

against RHP: .281 AVG, .379 OBP, .833 OPS
against LHP: .095 AVG, .240 OBP, .335 OPS

Ross

against RHP: .258 AVG, .346 OBP, .762 OPS
against LHP: .297 AVG, .366 OBP, .879 OPS

Diagnosis?

Ross should be our only every day outfielder. Schierholtz and Burrell
and Torres should never start against lefties. Rowand should never
start against righties.

Granted, it's only mid-June so this isn't the largest sample size and
these splits are based on this year only. That being said...

If Sabean is looking to find a bat somewhere other than catcher, maybe
SS or 2B shouldn't be the goal. This team needs another outfielder that can hit
righties AND lefties. Only Cody Ross is decent in that category.

My sleeper trade candidate? Hunter Pence. We'd have to give up a lot (possibly a Belt AND Wheeler combo) but Pence is a solid starting outfielder who would remain under the Giants control through 2013. He'd fit right in as a solid building block with Posey and Sandoval and our pitching staff. But if not Pence, there should be other outfielders available come deadline time that the Giants could pick up to help fill the Posey (and Sanchez) void.

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